Wednesday, October 08, 2014

“How did it come to this?”

-King Théoden, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (movie)History is stories. History is facts. History is events.
History is thematic. History is legend. History is truth. History is written by
the victors. History is a weapon. History is an argument without end. History
is the hand of the Almighty. History is people. History is interesting. History is context.

Yet if you ask the average American, I suspect the most
common refrain will be ‘History is boring’. Why is that? What takes the natural
curiosity of a child looking for answers and turns it aside with ruthless
efficiency?

It is in no small part an absence of a need for
understanding. People learn best when there is a definitive and useful
application. You look both ways to cross the street to avoid a jarring life
event. People brush their teeth to retain molars and smell pleasant. Many
children even develop the skill of walking because there is a perceived use. Humans
like to see immediate application of what we are learning. The common refrain
of students learning algebra is “Why does this matter to me?” In the case of
algebra, the material must be known for the future despite its minimal
application in the present. It can be taught effectively through rigorous
exercises and rote coursework. There is undeniably a correct answer, a solution
without dispute. Where math can be effectively compelled, history becomes more
obtuse and ephemeral with regimented pressure. It is far from obvious to the
reluctant student that history has applications or benefits today or tomorrow. Humans
live and learn in the present, often inconsiderate of future needs or utility.
In history education, this barrier must be overcome.

The separation of a great teacher from a merely competent
teacher is the ability to offer value to the pupil. History will not endure as a
litany of dates and facts. It is and must be taught as greater than the sum of
its parts. One robust way is through stories[i].
We like stories; our western minds intuitively seek the beginning, the middle
and the end. Our empathic side can transport us into the story, riveting us in
the search for detail and meaning and purpose. When the application and
benefits of learning history escape notice this backdoor of stories can endow
appetite. In the absence of this, history education frequently fails the ‘Why
does it matter to me?’ question. We want and need the answer to ‘How does it
matter to me?’ to prompt the Théoden question, ‘How did it come to this?’

Our standard narration of history begins with our first
evidence of the written word in ancient Sumer, where we learn of clay tablets
and many things we don’t actually know. Then Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia,
Greece, Rome, Here Be Dark Ages, Vikings, Leonardo Da Vinci, 1492, The Mayflower, George Washington, Abraham
Lincoln, light bulb, trenches in Europe, Nazis, Atom Bomb, and JFK. None of
these things matter in the daily life of most adults, less so in the daily life
of a K-12 student. This only begins to matter when people look and ask our Théoden
question. When asking this question, people are seeking context; now history
matters a great deal. To understand History and its context a personal desire
is required.

The challenge for history education is to encourage and
enable a student to ask our Théoden question. I propose we work backwards from
our present position. Trace out present context in reverse by noting the
turning points along the way. Ask “Why are all Americans treated as equal under
the law?” We want to trace this idea to its genesis. Tell of Martin Luther King
Jr. and the civil rights movement. Share the story of Ricky Branch and Jackie
Robinson. Let Susan B. Anthony be known. Tell the story of Abraham Lincoln and
the Emancipation Proclamation. Skip not Andrew Jackson’s Trail of Tears and the
Great Compromise of Clay. Remind us of the Dred Scott decision. Tell of John
Quincy Adams and the Amistad. Honor
our bedrock of the US constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Tell of
the elder Adams and his defense of the law and impartial justice, of Jefferson
and his defense of man, of Madison and the separation of powers, of Monroe and
his pen, and of Washington and his integrity with power. Teach of those binary
stars Burke and Paine. Recall Locke and Hobbes, Cromwell and John Cooke, and
the still earlier Magna Carta. Know that Hammurabi of Babylon did codify laws
and that the Medes and the Persians held their monarchs bound. Let us never
forget that all men are created equal, each created in the image of his
creator. The vast sweep of history and context require understanding, yet the
knowledge must find rest in the fertile soil asking the why and the how.

Will that fertile soil come into being? Not all students
will muse as Théoden, nor should we force them to. It is imperative to
understand that force-fed history is worse than no history at all. It provides
the veneer of knowledge through possession of paperwork certifying completion.
It fosters distaste for the subject of the past. No one eagerly anticipates the
next glass of milk if the previous one was curdled when consumed. Let us not
behave foolishly and ruin the minds which may become agreeable to this study in
the future by souring the mind in the present. Let those who wish to ignore
history do so as their choice, and leave the minds that will choose to concern themselves
with the context of history unsullied with milk miserably curdled.

[i]
Practical Note for grades K-6th: Look at the Landmark series of
history books published by Random House. These are a vast collection of
narrative histories and biographies written by prolific children’s authors from
the 1950’s-60s, and do an extraordinary job of embedding the story of people’s lives
into the factual narrative of history.

[ii] Here are some thoughts on why history matters to civilization and public policy choices of the electorate from 2012. [iii] Title From I, Robot, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx8LAFSY3Ws